CET
Order levels recovering and transformation taking effect - Heidelberg raises target margin for 2020/21 (2)
Due to the conversion of securities into cash and cash equivalents and inflows from the aforementioned portfolio measures and improvements in net working capital, free cash flow was improved in the period under review by EUR 63 million to EUR -10 million. A positive figure of EUR 42 million was achieved in the third quarter. Following the comprehensive debt relief measures, net financial debt is EUR 127 million and thus EUR 262 million below the comparable figure from the previous year. Against this backdrop, leverage (the ratio of net financial debt to EBITDA excluding restructuring result from the last four quarters) dropped to just 1.0 (previous year: 1.9). Despite the slightly positive net profit after taxes, the further significant reduction in actuarial interest rates for the valuation of pension obligations in Germany meant that the equity ratio as per IFRS dropped